Stem Cell Clinic

What You Need to Know About Prop 14, The Stem Cell Research Bond (Transcript) – KQED

If reading through the statewide ballot propositions has made your head spin, you are in the right place! From Oct. 1 - 16, Bay Curious is exploring the 12 statewide ballot propositions in our Prop Fest series. This episode tackles Prop 14, the stem cell research bond.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:01:55] OK, so what exactly does this bond fund?

Danielle Venton [00:01:59] This would fund $5.5 billion in stem cell research and treatments in California. Some of the diseases that stem cell research is seeking to cure or treat include cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, blindness, and even COVID-19. I spoke recently with a guy named Jake Javier. He supports this bond initiative because he knows firsthand how life changing stem cell research can be.

Jake Javier [00:02:25] I am in my last year at Cal Poly.

Danielle Venton [00:02:28] So, Jake grew up locally in Danville and was just graduating high school when he suffered a life altering injury.

Jake Javier [00:02:35] On the last day of high school, I drove in to a pool and hit my head on the bottom and broke my neck and was immediately paralyzed.

Danielle Venton [00:02:47] He says his injury was complete, with very little hope of recovery. But a doctor at Stanford reached out to Jake and his family and said, you can be part of this clinical trial where we, with a one time surgery, will inject stem cells into the damaged area and you may possibly see some benefits.

Danielle Venton [00:03:07] Now, Jake is still injured.

Jake Javier [00:03:09] I'm a quadriplegic. I use a wheelchair.

Danielle Venton [00:03:11] But he says after the surgery, he noticed more movement in his arms, in his hands.

Jake Javier [00:03:17] So, I mean, with my injury, I'm at a level where I would normally not have any function at all in my hands and very, very little function like in my triceps and things like that. Muscles that are really important for functionality and, you know, being able to get through day to day activities that could help me push myself around more, help me transfer in and out of my chair independently. And then also, I notice, you know, I got some some finger movement. It doesn't seem like much, but even that little movement has helped me so much with picking things up and things like that. So it was really, I was really blessed to see that happen.

Danielle Venton [00:03:51] So he doesn't know how much of his recovery is due to the stem cells. How much is natural, or how much is due to physical therapy. But today he's able to live independently, to go to college and he wants to pursue a career in medicine. And he is a big believer in stem cell research, regenerative medicine, and is really hoping that California voters will support this proposition.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:04:20] Now, what exactly are stem cells and how do they work, I guess?

Danielle Venton [00:04:25] Yeah, stem cells are types of cells that can be turned into any type of specialized cell. Scientists have known about them since the eighteen hundreds, but it wasn't until the late 90s that researchers developed a method to derive them from human embryos and grow them in a laboratory. And then people really began to get excited about their potential for medicine. Now these cells came from unused embryos created for in vitro fertilization, and they were donated with informed consent. But many anti-abortion groups felt that using the cells were tantamount to taking a human life. So in 2001, then President George W. Bush banned federal funding for any research using newly created stem cell lines.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:05:09] OK. And how does that get us now to bonds in California?

Danielle Venton [00:05:13] Well, Californians wanted to circumvent these federal restrictions, and in 2004 voted for a bond that gave the state $3 billion to create a research agency called the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM. There was a lot of public support for it. And it just felt like these wonderful cures could be right around the corner. Celebrities like Michael J. Fox appeared in TV commercials.

Michael J. Fox TV commercial [00:05:36] My most important role lately is as an advocate for patients, and for finding new cures for diseases. That's why I'm asking you to vote yes on Proposition 71, Stem Cell Research Initiative.

Danielle Venton [00:05:48] And the money for that research, that $3 billion, has now run out. And to continue their work, the stem cell advocacy group, Americans for Cures, is asking voters for more money.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:06:00] So we're basically voting on whether we want to refill the stem cell research piggy bank here.

Danielle Venton [00:06:05] Yeah, exactly. Some question if the state can afford this at this time when budgets are going to be so tight. Others have been disappointed by the slow pace of cures coming out of the field. Now, there are people who credit this research, such as Jake, with improving or restoring their health or the health of their loved ones. Or maybe they hope that one day it will, and they would balk at the idea that this is not worthy research. They point to achievements that the agency has funded. That includes effectively a cure for bubble baby disease. This is when someone is born without a functioning immune system. That mutation can now be corrected with genetically modified stem cells. And recently, just within the last year or so, the FDA approved two new treatments for blood cancer, developed with CIRM support. These achievements are what the agency points to when they're criticized for not having accomplished more. And they say the process of scientific discovery is long and unpredictable.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:07:04] Now, wasn't that Bush-era ban on stem cell research that you were talking about earlier wasn't that overturned?

Danielle Venton [00:07:11] Yes, that was overturned by President Obama. However, there are current members of Congress who are lobbying President Trump to ban the research again. And if that happens, then California would be the only major player in stemcell research once again in the United States.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:07:30] All right, so who is supporting Prop 14?

Danielle Venton [00:07:32] Governor Gavin Newsom, for one. Many patient advocacy organizations and medical and research institutions, including the California Board of Regents. These people don't want to see the pace of this research slow. They want it to accelerate. The political action committee supporting this proposition is reporting more than six million dollars in contributions.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:07:53] All right. And what about the opposition? Who's against it?

Danielle Venton [00:07:55] Well, so far, there's no organized, funded opposition. There have been several newspaper editorials coming out against it, including locally, the Mercury News and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. They basically say state bonds aren't the way to fund research and the situation isn't like it was in 2004 and that the institute should now seek other sources of funding and move forward as a nonprofit.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:08:19] All right, Danielle. Well, thanks, as always for your help.

Danielle Venton [00:08:21] My pleasure. Thanks.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:08:28] In a nutshell, a vote yes on Proposition 14 says you think Californians should give $5.5 billion to the state's stem cell research institute. That money will be raised by selling bonds, which the state would pay back, with interest, out of the general fund over the next 30 years. A vote no means you think we shouldn't spend public money on this research.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:08:54] That's it on Proposition 14. We'll be back tomorrow with an episode on Prop 15. And oh, it is a doozy. Commercial property tax! A partial rollback of one of California's most controversial propositions! It's going to be fire. In the meantime, you can find more of KQED election coverage at KQED.org/elections. Two reminders on the way out: October 19th is the last day to register to vote and mail in ballots must be postmarked on or before November 3rd.

Olivia Allen-Price [00:09:28] Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member supported KQED. I'm Olivia Allen-Price. See you tomorrow.

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What You Need to Know About Prop 14, The Stem Cell Research Bond (Transcript) - KQED

SMART researchers receive Intra-CREATE grant for personalized medicine and cell therapy – MIT News

Researchers from Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine (CAMP), an interdisciplinary research group at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MITs research enterprise in Singapore, have been awarded Intra-CREATE grants from the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore to help support research on retinal biometrics for glaucoma progression and neural cell implantation therapy for spinal cord injuries. The grants are part of the NRFs initiative to bring together researchers from Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (CREATE) partner institutions, in order to achieve greater impact from collaborative research efforts.

SMART CAMP was formed in 2019 to focus on ways to produce living cells as medicine delivered to humans to treat a range of illnesses and medical conditions, including tissue degenerative diseases, cancer, and autoimmune disorders.

Singapores well-established biopharmaceutical ecosystem brings with it a thriving research ecosystem that is supported by skilled talents and strong manufacturing capabilities. We are excited to collaborate with our partners in Singapore, bringing together an interdisciplinary group of experts from MIT and Singapore, for new research areas at SMART. In addition to our existing research on our three flagship projects, we hope to develop breakthroughs in manufacturing other cell therapy platforms that will enable better medical treatments and outcomes for society, says Krystyn Van Vliet, co-lead principal investigator at SMART CAMP, professor of materials science and engineering, and associate provost at MIT.

Understanding glaucoma progression for better-targeted treatments

Hosted by SMART CAMP, the first research project, Retinal Analytics via Machine learning aiding Physics (RAMP), brings together an interdisciplinary group of ophthalmologists, data scientists, and optical scientists from SMART, Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Duke-NUS Medical School, MIT, and National University of Singapore (NUS). The team will seek to establish first principles-founded and statistically confident models of glaucoma progression in patients. Through retinal biomechanics, the models will enable rapid and reliable forecast of the rate and trajectory of glaucoma progression, leading to better-targeted treatments.

Glaucoma, an eye condition often caused by stress-induced damage over time at the optic nerve head, accounts for 5.1 million of the estimated 38 million blind in the world and 40 percent of blindness in Singapore. Currently, health practitioners face challenges forecasting glaucoma progression and its treatment strategies due to the lack of research and technology that accurately establish the relationship between its properties, such as the elasticity of the retina and optic nerve heads, blood flow, intraocular pressure and, ultimately, damage to the optic nerve head.

The research is co-led by George Barbastathis, principal investigator at SMART CAMP and professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, and Aung Tin, executive director at SERI and professor at the Department of Ophthalmology at NUS. The team includes CAMP principal investigators Nicholas Fang, also a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT; Lisa Tucker-Kellogg, assistant professor with the Cancer and Stem Biology program at Duke-NUS; and Hanry Yu, professor of physiology with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS and CAMPs co-lead principal investigator.

We look forward to leveraging the ideas fostered in SMART CAMP to build data analytics and optical imaging capabilities for this pressing medical challenge of glaucoma prediction, says Barbastathis.

Cell transplantation to treat irreparable spinal cord injury

Engineering Scaffold-Mediated Neural Cell Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury Treatment (ScaNCellS), the second research project, gathers an interdisciplinary group of engineers, cell biologists, and clinician scientists from SMART, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), NUS, IMCB A*STAR, A*STAR, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the University of Cambridge, and MIT. The team will seek to design a combined scaffold and neural cell implantation therapy for spinal cord injury treatment that is safe, efficacious, and reproducible, paving the way forward for similar neural cell therapies for other neurological disorders. The project, an intersection of engineering and health, will achieve its goals through an enhanced biological understanding of the regeneration process of nerve tissue and optimized engineering methods to prepare cells and biomaterials for treatment.

Spinal cord injury (SCI), affecting between 250,000 and 500,000 people yearly, is expected to incur higher societal costs as compared to other common conditions such as dementia, multiple sclerosis, and cerebral palsy. SCI can lead to temporary or permanent changes in spinal cord function, including numbness or paralysis. Currently, even with the best possible treatment, the injury generally results in some incurable impairment.

The research is co-led by Chew Sing Yian, principal investigator at SMART CAMP and associate professor of the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at NTU, and Laurent David, professor at University of Lyon (France) and leader of the Polymers for Life Sciences group at CNRS Polymer Engineering Laboratory. The team includes CAMP principal investigators Ai Ye from Singapore University of Technology and Design; Jongyoon Han and Zhao Xuanhe, both professors at MIT; as well as Shi-Yan Ng and Jonathan Loh from Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR.

Chew says, Our earlier SMART and NTU scientific collaborations on progenitor cells in the central nervous system are now being extended to cell therapy translation. This helps us address SCI in a new way, and connect to the methods of quality analysis for cells developed in SMART CAMP.

Cell therapy, one of the fastest-growing areas of research, will provide patients with access to more options that will prevent and treat illnesses, some of which are currently incurable. Glaucoma and spinal cord injuries affect many. Our research will seek to plug current gaps and deliver valuable impact to cell therapy research and medical treatments for both conditions. With a good foundation to work on, we will be able to pave the way for future exciting research for further breakthroughs that will benefit the health-care industry and society, says Hanry Yu, co-lead principal investigator at SMART CAMP, professor of physiology with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS, and group leader of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at A*STAR.

The grants for both projects will commence on Oct. 1, with RAMP expected to run until Sept. 30, 2022, and ScaNCellS expected to run until Sept. 30, 2023.

SMART was. established by the MIT in partnership with the NRF in 2007. SMART is the first entity in the CREATE developed by NRF. SMART serves as an intellectual and innovation hub for research interactions between MIT and Singapore, undertaking cutting-edge research projects in areas of interest to both Singapore and MIT. SMART currently comprises an Innovation Centre and five interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs): Antimicrobial Resistance, CAMP, Disruptive and Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision, Future Urban Mobility, and Low Energy Electronic Systems.

CAMP is a SMART IRG launched in June 2019. It focuses on better ways to produce living cells as medicine, or cellular therapies, to provide more patients access to promising and approved therapies. The investigators at CAMP address two key bottlenecks facing the production of a range of potential cell therapies: critical quality attributes (CQA) and process analytic technologies (PAT). Leveraging deep collaborations within Singapore and MIT in the United States, CAMP invents and demonstrates CQA/PAT capabilities from stem to immune cells. Its work addresses ailments ranging from cancer to tissue degeneration, targeting adherent and suspended cells, with and without genetic engineering.

CAMP is the R&D core of a comprehensive national effort on cell therapy manufacturing in Singapore.

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SMART researchers receive Intra-CREATE grant for personalized medicine and cell therapy - MIT News

Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Centre collaborating with Israeli firm for COVID-19 therapies – Gulf News

A medical staff member carries a swab sample for testing at a screening centre in Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi: UAE's Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Centre (ADSCC) is collaborating with Israeli regenerative medicine company, Pluristem, to advance COVID-19 therapies.

In a statement, ADSCC said it was working to administer Pluristem developed PLX cells via a nebuliser to COVID-19 patients. The collaboration will allow ADSCC to expand its stem cell therapy options with the novel PLX cells, while also enabling Pluristem to leverage the ADSCCs nebuliser administration experience to develop a new treatment delivery model for PLX cells.

ADSCC has reported effective usage of nebulisers to treat patients suffering from COVID-19 infection, with stem cells sourced from the patients own blood.

Further discussions are also ongoing to treat chronic Graft Versus Host Disease (cGvHD) a life-threatening immune response to the donors stem cells against the host (patient).

Both projects follow a recently-signed agreement between ADSCC and Pluristem to harness the power of regenerative medicine.

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Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Centre collaborating with Israeli firm for COVID-19 therapies - Gulf News

Majority of Respondents Support Chimeric Animal Research: Survey – The Scientist

Human-animal chimeric embryosorganisms created using cells from two or more specieshave the potential to change how researchers study disease and generate organs and tissues for human transplants. One day, scientists have proposed, it may be possible for someone with, say, pancreatic cancer to have their stem cells injected into a modified swine embryo lacking its own pancreas so it can grow the human organ for donation.

Already, human-animal chimeric embryos (HACEs) have been created using human cells injected into pigs, sheep, mice, rats, and monkeys, although none in the US have been brought to term. In fact, their very existence is ethically contentious. What happens, for example, if scientists were to grow a human brain in an animal, blurring the line between species?

In response to ethical, social, and legal concerns, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a moratorium on funding for HACE research in 2015 pending the development of a new set of regulatory guidelines. While research continues in other countriesand even in the US, through collaborations with foreign researchers and private fundingthe NIH has yet to reverse its decision, despite previous announcements that it would do so.

To gauge the American publics support for HACE research, Francis Shen, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, recreated two recent surveys carried out in Japan, where many of the worlds HACE studies are done. In those surveys, Shens colleagues found that the majority of the Japanese public supported the use of HACEs, although their feelings varied depending on the type of organ or tissue being grown. We thought, Boy, itd be really interesting to see if the American public thinks about things the same way, Shen tells The Scientist.

Shens team directly translated the Japanese surveys into English, asking 430 participants to rate their support for each of the three steps involved in producing an organ using HACE technology: the insertion of human stem cells into an animal embryo, the transplanting of the embryo into a surrogate, and the harvesting of the resulting organ for use in a human. As before, they gauged peoples reactions to organ and tissue types, including skin, liver, blood, heart, brain, and gametes.

The Scientistspoke with Shen about the results of the US study, published today (October 1) in Stem Cell Reports.

University of Minnesota Law School

Francis Shen:Organ transplantation is a major goal, and that would be a major breakthrough. When I describe [HACEs] to . . . colleagues who maybe havent heard of them before, I talk about organ transplantation. And they understand that, yes, if you grow an organ from your own cells, it makes intuitive sense that your body might be more receptive.

I think there are also a large number of applications that fall broadly under regenerative medicine. One is to better understand the mechanisms of disease and organ function. Theres basic science advances to be achieved there. And then there are applied clinical advances and improvements in treatment across a wide range of diseases and disorders. We can develop better interventions, pharmacological and otherwise. The techniques are not just about improving organ donation. There are also a number of ways, through both basic and applied science, this work can really improve our knowledge and therefore response to any number of diseases and disorders.

FS: One of the main findings was that there seems to be very broad support, even broader than in the Japanese public, for the different steps of HACE research. Support was 59 percent, so a strong majority, support all three steps, including the returning of the organ into a human.

Second was that there are some differences across subgroups in the public. One thing that we thought was interesting is that, although lower, in some instances the support of those who are politically conservative was still quite strong . . . suggesting that this type of stem cell researchusing [induced pluripotent stem] cells and not embryonic stem cells harvested from a fetusperhaps could be more politically palatable.

FS:[People are] more accepting of using HACEs to grow things like livers and skin than sperm, eggs, or brains, and I think it gets to humanization. Its speculation, but I think its informed speculation based on other ethical scholarship and work that has been done. A liver is kind of a liver, it doesnt seem to have too many special properties, but the sperm and the egg and the brain, those are part and parcel of a person. So it feels much more ethically concerning to grow a person in a pig, as opposed to growing just some constituent part of a person.

Someone has a heart transplant or a liver transplant, and it just kind of seems to make more sense. I think theres a cultural acceptance and understanding thats easier to analogize to.

There are a series of ethical concerns, and we tried pretty hard in the paper to emphasize that. They include animal welfare, human dignity, and then the potential for the neurological humanization of chimeric animals.

I think addressing them is tremendously important. Although the NIH has a moratorium presently, it doesnt mean this type of research isnt going to happen. If the NIH doesnt fund it with these ethical guidelines in place, it could be funded and produced elsewhere outside of NIH purview. So not only is there an opportunity to set the ethics frameworks here, theres almost an imperative to do so.

The bottom line for me is that the ethics and the laws and regulation should go hand in hand with the development of the research. And to do that productively means we need to get together and work through these complicated issues. What our study suggests is that the American public would like us to do that.

Editors note: The interview was edited for brevity.

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Majority of Respondents Support Chimeric Animal Research: Survey - The Scientist